Wix: The Ultimate WordPress Alternative? - An In-Depth Review
Launched in 2006, Wix has become one of the leaders in the web design industry having millions of users worldwide.
It claims to be a one-stop-shop, providing a hassle-free way of creating websites without sacrificing the quality.
But is that actually true, can Wix go against WordPress and be a viable alternative?
Let’s find out.
Overall Rating
Upsides
All-in-one package
Easy-to-use, drag and drop interface
Reasonable pricing
A large number of high-quality templates (800+) that comes with useful sample content
Surprisingly good e-commerce features
Built-in email marketing tool
Dedicated media center with a wide range of professionally shot photographs
App market with 250+ plugins
AI-based editor (WIX ADI)
A free domain is included in the first year
Wix offers a free version
Searchable knowledge base
Automatic backups
Drawbacks
Even though it has CMS-like features, it’s not a full-fledged Content Management System
Once the site is published, templates cannot be changed
It’s impossible to create GDRP cookie banners without a third-party plugin
Digital products and blog content cannot be exported
Every plan comes with a limited storage place
True multi-currency selling is not possible
Wix sites aren’t fully responsible
AMP is only available for blog posts
Website Builder
Drag-and-Drop Editor
One of the main features that Wix is centered around is the drag-and-drop editor. The beginner-friendly tool requires zero coding experience to get started and it filled with features, giving your full creative control.
To make your site stand out, you can add decorative elements, motion graphics, parallax effects, and you can choose from 100+ or upload your own.
Apart from the desktop version, Wix offers a separate mobile editor, where you can make adjustments and make your website responsive and user-friendly.
Templates
Wix offers one of the largest template collection on the market: you can choose from 800+ pre-built, niched-down templates.
These templates are curated based on industry (such as business, blog, education, food, and online store), and they are highly customizable, which means you can tweak the features and create a website tailored to your needs.
The only downside is that once you published your site, you can’t change between templates.
WIX ADI
ADI stands for Artificial Design Intelligence, which is (you guessed it) an AI-based website editor.
If you don’t have much experience in creating websites, this option is going to be your safest bet.
All you have to do is answer a set of questions, set up your social media accounts, give some basic personal data, and ADI will create a brand-new website for you based on that information.
After that, you can edit the site however you’d like, and ADI will give you insights and suggestions along the way.
Editor X
In February 2020, Wix launched its fully responsive website creation platform, called Editor X.
Editor X was built specifically for agencies, designers, and more experienced users. It gives you enhanced capabilities, allowing you to create complex layouts without writing any code.
You can explore the features of Editor X with the free plan, but if you’d like to access every feature and function, you need to upgrade to one of the Premium Plans.
Animations
Smooth animated transitions and eye-catching visual effects can draw significant attention to your website.
With Wix, pretty much every part of your website can be animated, whether is text, titles, imagery, or buttons – just make sure to don’t overdo it.
Media Library
Wix has undoubtedly one of the largest media libraries when it comes to website builders.
You can access millions of unique, professionally shot photos, and stock footage for free, no matter which plans you’re on.
Inside the Media Manager, you can review every file you saved and site contributors (if you have any) have access to them, as well.
Content Manager
The Wix Content Manager allows you to manage your content by creating content collections.
Here, you can store the content you created or the content your visitors submitted.
After you added the Content Manager, you can create Datasets, which connects your page’s elements to your content collection.
That allows you to display elements from collections on your website.
Mobile Friendliness
In 2021, 56% percent of the internet traffic is coming from mobile devices according to Oberlo.
Even though your desktop version of your site is optimized to look good on portable devices, there is no comprise when it comes to mobile-friendliness and responsiveness.
Most webpage builders, such as Squarespace or Shopify support responsive design, where page elements are positioned relative to the screen, and the website will automatically adjust itself to the device that’s being viewed on.
Google recommends this structure, to ensure better results.
However, Wix uses another technique called absolute positioning, where page elements are positioned by pixel rather than relative to the screen.
That creates an accurate, pixel-perfect look, which looks good on the screen, but it’s not going to adapt as well to different screen sizes, plus it doesn’t make the website fully responsive.
With that said, absolute positioning might cause some troubles, but with the designated mobile site builder, you can tweak your site, hide or unhide elements, or customize your dropdown menu to ensure effectiveness.
Velo by Wix
Velo is a platform inside Wix built for full-stack developers and advanced users who prefer to use code. It allows you to create dynamic sites with custom functionality using standard JavaScript and Velo API.
In addition, you get security backups and PII encryption and Velo gives you the ability to connect external databases and third-party tools such as Google Cloud Operations.
Multilingual Websites
Once you are done with designing your site, you can translate it to multiple languages to attract visitors from all around the world.
First, you have to enable Wix Multilingual and chose how you’d like to translate the content: manually by one section at a time, automatically with Google Translate or with a professional translator.
Then, Wix will create a duplicate version of your site in the selected languages that you can access and make changes from the standard Wix Editor.
Wix Multilingual is only available for websites built in the Wix Editor.
App Market
Wix offers 250+ Apps, that will integrate seamlessly and expand the functionality of your website.
They come in several different categories: you can choose from eCommerce tools, online event bookings, business solutions, and a lot more.
SEO Features
If you’d like your content to be seen by others, you have to boost your rankings in the search engines.
Wix lets you edit met description, titles, URLs, and it comes with Google Search Console and Schema.org integration.
You can get a personalized SEO setup plan based on business, keywords, and location to start optimizing your site for search engines.
Overall, Wix’s SEO tools have some limitations and they aren’t as comprehensive, they will provide a great kickstart with minimal effort on your part.
Hire a Partner
While Wix makes it pretty ease to create a new website, you can hire a professional (freelancers or agencies) to do it for you.
There are two ways to do that:
Submitting a request in the Wix marketplace, and you will get matched with a Partner based on your needs
Searching for a Partner in the Wix Marketplace, and submitting a request directly to them
Once you found your Partner and agreed on the costs, you can start working together to create your ideal website.
E-Commerce Features
Digital Products
Wix Stores gives you the ability to sell both digital and physical products.
All you got to do is go to the Products tab, click on New Product, select Digital File, fill out the details, save it and you’re good to go.
Above, you can see the limits regarding digital products.
Physical Products
Wix makes it pretty easy to create a physical product. Here is how to do it in 7 simple steps:
Go to the Products table on your dashboard
Click on New Product
Select Physical
Insert up to 15 product images
Create a description
Set inventory & weight options under Inventory & Shipping
Save your product
Dropshipping
In order to start dropshipping, you have to add the Modalyst App to your website, which is a marketplace platform that connects stores with reliable suppliers.
After its installed, you can choose your products, design your pages and start dropshipping.
Taxes
When it comes to taxes, you can automate it entirely with Avalara, third-party software that gives you real-time tax rates across the world.
You can connect it from the Wix Store Tab and start calculating tax rates.
Avalara is only available for users with a Business Unlimited or a Business VIP plan.
Shipping
You can create multiple delivery options and customers can choose the one that fits them best.
At the checkout, they will see an updated price, based on the location and delivery option.
If you’d like to hide shipping or tax rates on the shopping cart page, you can do that as well.
Point of Sale
Point of Sale lets you sell on Wix not just online, but on physical locations as well, with a tablet-like device where you can manage everything.
With a Wix Payment Account, you can order the POS hardware kit.
Once it arrived, all you have to do is unbox it, plug it in and you can control your store catalog from there – it comes with everything pre-installed.
Furthermore, you’ll be able to build product catalogs, create a custom checkout screen, use smart analytics, and much more.
Currently, Point of Sale is only available for users in the U.S.
Here you can get started.
Payment Gateways
Wix lets you connect your site to pay providers based on your preferences and location.
If you’d like to change it to another payment provider that’s available where you’re located, you can do that easily.
Here are the payment gateways that you can use on Wix.
Buy Now, Pay Later
You can offer shoppers flexible payments with Buy Now, Pay Later solutions such as Affirm, AfterPay, or Sezzle.
These tools allow the customer to purchase a product and then pay for it later in multiple installments.
If you use this option, there is a high likelihood of attracting more shoppers and increasing in-cart conversion rates.
Email Marketing
One of the best features of Wix is Ascend: an intuitive, built-in email marketing tool that’s accessible for every Wix user.
It allows you to create professional emails using either the pre-made templates or the drag-and-drop editor.
The content data, that’s captured on your website will be added automatically to your contact list.
Additionally, you’ll be able to automate your email campaigns and measure their performance from a dedicated analytics dashboard.
Ascend is quite cheap compared to other email marketing providers. You’ll only have to pay $45 to send up to a million emails per month, as opposed to competitors, where that would easily cost $1000s of dollars a month.
Domain Hosting
Each paid plan comes with a custom domain that you can use for free in the first year.
After that, it renews at $14.95 a year with privacy protection included.
Pricing
Free Version
Wix has a free forever plan, however, it comes with severe limitations: your domain name will be an assigned URL, Wix branding will appear on your website and you’ll only get 500MB of storage and bandwidth.
If you take your site seriously and you’d present a professional image of your brand to the world, we do not recommend this plan.
Paid Plans
Combo
Combo, a plan designed for personal use, will remove Wix ads and give you a free domain, free SSL, 3GB of storage and 30 minutes of video hours.
If you are starting out, Combo will be a great steppingstone.
Unlimited
Unlimited, as Wix advertises, was built for freelancers and entrepreneurs. You’ll get all features of Combo and more storage space (10GB) and video hours (1 hour).
Moreover, Wix will add $300 ad credit, the Site Booster App , and Visitor Analytics App to your subscription.
Pro
Pro, one of Wix’s most popular plans, comes with personal branding options, (a professional logo, and social media logo files) which its biggest advantage.
Aside from that, it gives you 20GB of video storage and 2 hours of video.
VIP
The only difference between Pro and VIP is the amount of storage and customer support you get.
It offers 35GB of storage space, 5 hours of video, and priority customer care, which is particularly helpful when your website is facing technical issues and you need a quick solution.
E-Commerce Plans
Business Basic
Business Basic is the cheapest eCommerce plan available, and for $23 a month, you’ll get basic functions such as payment processing, recurring payments, customer accounts, and unlimited products.
If you’re a beginner in eCommerce, this plan can be a great start, but as you grow, you’ll need to upgrade.
Business Unlimited
This plan comes with everything that Business Basic has plus more enhanced features such as multi-currency selling, subscriptions, and automated sales tax.
Considering that it only costs $3 more than the Business Basic Plan, it’s a pretty decent deal and it serves as a great middle-ground for those who’d like to build a robust eCommerce presence, but wouldn’t want to spend $50/mo on the VIP plan.
Business VIP
Business VIP comes with priority customer service and personalized data reports, which are something that the previous plans do not offer.
On top of that, you’ll be able to sell on social channels, dropship unlimited products, and build a loyalty program that rewards returning customers.
Wix for Enterprise
Wix offers an Enterprise plan for brands that need a custom website solution. If that’s you, you’ll have to request a call, and Wix will create a specialized plan for your brand.
Prices start from $500/month and vary depending on your needs.
Customer Service
Wix has a Help Centre, which is a searchable knowledge base, filled with a decent amount of how-to articles addressing specific issues.
Those tutorials can be pretty useful when you’re dealing with minor technical problems.
If you are looking for professional support, you have two choices: over-the-phone assistance or email tickets – by specifying your issue, you can save response time significantly.
As of today, there isn’t any live chat option, only a chatbot that redirects you to the Help Centre.
Alternatively, you can try contacting Wix on their social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)- and since they’re active on those platforms, a community manager might be able to solve your much quicker.
Possible Alternatives
WordPress.org
Squarespace
Shopify
Conclusion
The intuitive, easy-to-use, drag-and-drop editor makes it possible to create a stunning website – no matter your experience in web design.
The built-in-email marketing tool, Ascend, comes with powerful features that every user can access, and overall it turns out to be much more cost-effective than other email marketing tools.
Wix is best is suitable for small businesses, designers, and portfolio sites. If blogging and content creation is your main focus, WordPress may be a better alternative.
While Wix isn’t the best when it comes to SEO or e-commerce, you’ll get an all-in-one solution with everything included for a relatively low price.
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